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CARRANZA 

The  Man  and  His  Work 


By  george  McPherson  hunter 

Mexican-American  Leagu< 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/carranzarnanhiswo00hunt_0 


There  is  no  certainty  about  Villa: — whether  he  is 
dead  or  alive,  who  can  say?  He  has  been  reported 
dead  in  so  many  places  we  might  be  pardoned  for 
assuming  that,  personally,  he  is  a  myth. 

Venustiano  Carranza  is  not  a  myth,  he  is  in  Mex¬ 
ico,  the  de  facto  head  of  that  nation. 

In  appearance,  he  is  a  tall,  grey-haired  man,  car¬ 
rying  easily  his  fifty-nine  years.  When  walking, 
he  strides  ahead  as  if  he  had  business  on  his  mind. 
Seated  at  his  desk,  he  talks  in  quiet  tones  about  the 
Revolution  and  the  remaking  of  Mexico  in  a  calm, 
matter-of-fact  way. 

There  is  nothing  of  the  swashbuckler,  or  the  melo¬ 
dramatic  hero,  about  him.  A  farmer,  a  “ranchero” 
by  taste  and  inclination,  a  lawyer  by  profession, 
naturally  a  student  and  an  idealist,  compulsion  and 
patriotism  have  made  him  a  man  of  action.  He 
is  moderately  wealthy,  and  has  spent  nearly  a  life¬ 
time  in  public  service,  so  he  is  removed  from  the 
charge  of  being  a  political  adventurer. 

Political  offices  are  acid  tests  of  men’s  characters. 
Carranza  has  been  tried  by  his  country  in  various 
offices.  His  apprenticeship  was  served  in  Municipal 
and  State  Government.  Now  he  is  the  first  chief 
of  Mexico.  Fire  is  the  last  test  of  a  man. 


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Latin-Americans  are  temperamental  volcanoes. 
Carranza  suggests  a  glacier,  in  his  advance.  Slowly 
and  irresistibly,  he  has  moved  upwards.  Perhaps 
by  reason  of  the  ideas  he  represents  and  the  strength 
of  his  convictions,  for  even  his  enemies  have  been 
impressed  by  his  character.  Opponents  like  Alva¬ 
rado,  Gonzalez  and  Brigon  have  been  won  to  his 
support  by  his  moderate  policy  and  constructive 
aims.  Carranza  wields  the  big  idea  in  preference  to 
the  big  stick.  .  , 

In  the  days  of  the  Diaz  regime  he  was  a  senator 
and  as  recently  as  Madero’s  ill-starred  reign,  he  was 
governor  of  Coahuila. 

Politically,  he  has  always  been  an  independent 
permeated  with  socialistic  ideas.  American  Repub¬ 
licans  and  Democrats  may  not  agree  with  some  of 
his  political  theories,  and  think  they  are  chimerical 
and  utopian,  but  you  can  always  feel  sure  he  is  dis¬ 
interested  and  has  the  unity  and  the  prosperity  of 
Mexico  at  heart.  The  present  Mexican  chaos  does 
not  obscure  his  vision  of  a  distant  ideal  Mexico. 

Carranza  has  the  first  requisite  of  a  natural 
leader:  faith.  He  believes  in  his  country  and  its 
future. 

The  First  Chief  of  Mexico  is  an  idealist,  and 
some  of  his  speeches  have  a  Cromwellian  ring  about 
them.  They  breathe  the  same  passion  for  justice. 
We  are  not  saying  he  is  a  Latin-American  Crom¬ 
well,  only  that  he  has  a  resemblance  to  him  in 
speech  and  task  . 

Cromwell  had  enemies  and  he  slew  some  of  them. 
Carranza  has  them  in  prison  and  he  spares  them. 


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His  clemency  angers  his  friends  and  encourages  his 
enemies. 

Kipling  has  some  jungling  lines  in  which  he  de¬ 
picts  St.  Peter  asking  a  trembling  petitioner  at  the 
celestial  gates: 

“By  the  soul  in  your  body, 
what  have  you  done? 

What  has  Carranza  done? 

His  last  act  was  the  abolition  of  bull-fighting,  and 
his  first,  the  restoration  of  land  to  the  Indians. 

His  practical  common  sense  told  him  liberty  was 
a  vain  dream  in  Mexico  if  it  rested  on  a  substratum 
of  ignorance,  so  he  opened  schools  and  met  the  op¬ 
position  of  the  clerical  party.  Mexico  abounds  in 
monopolies.  A  few  natives  monopolize  the  land, 
foreigners  the  minerals  and  the  oil,  and  the  Church, 
education.  He  is  trying  to  break  the  monopoly  in 
schools.  He  is  revaluating  the  land.  It  is  only  five 
years  since  Lloyd  George,  against  fierce  opposition, 
started  to  revalue  the  lands  of  England.  General 
Carranza  is  finding  it  no  easy  task,  to  revalue  the 
land  in  Mexico. 

The  free  municipality  or  the  township  system  he 
is  seeking  to  establish.  A  bigger  task  than  appears 
on  the  surface,  for  it  will  shift  the  political  em¬ 
phasis,  in  Mexico  from  personalities  to  parties  and 
principles,  and  educate  the  people  in  co-operation. 

In  military  affairs  he  is  making  the  troops  a  fed¬ 
eral  force,  when  state  troops  are  eliminated,  the 
temptation  of  the  State  governors  to  use  them  for 
their  own  political  ambitions  will  be  removed. 


Mexico  is  paying  the  price  of  despotism;  bad  gov¬ 
ernment,  devastation,  high  taxes  and  general  im¬ 
poverishment,  has  followed  the  years  when  the 
country  was  drained  of  its  wealth,  and  its  riches 
given  to  foreigners. 

The  lack  of  money  and  credit  is  a  legacy  Carranza 
received  from  the  old  regime,  and  it  will  take  time 
to  adjust  the  finances  of  Mexico. 

As  a  country,  it  is  as  large  as  Great  Britain,  France, 
Germany  and  Austria-Hungary  combined.  Sparsely 
populated,  but  possessing  great  resources,  and  its 
financial  salvation  should  come  from  within  its  own 
borders. 

Carranza  has  banked  the  fires  of  revolution  and 
he  is  trying  to  make  Mexico  support  the  Mexicans. 


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